Tim Montgomerie (born 24 July 1970) is a British Conservative Party activist, blogger, and columnist and former comment editor for The Times. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 until 2013, when he left to join The Times. In March 2014, Montgomerie announced his resignation as comment editor of The Times.[1]

Montgomerie has been described as "one of the most important Conservative activists of the past 20 years",[2] and in February 2012, The Observer said that "In the eyes of most MPs, Montgomerie [is] one of the most influential Tories outside the cabinet."[3]

Montgomerie was educated at the King's School, an independent school in Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany,[6] which serves the children of British military families based near the area, followed in 1988 by the University of Exeter in the historic city of Exeter in Devon in South West England, where he studied Economics and Geography, and ran the Conservative Association with Robert Halfon, Sajid Javid and David Burrowes, all future Conservative members of parliament.[5]

At Exeter University, Montgomerie and Burrowes also started the Conservative Christian Fellowship (CCF) in December 1990, supported by the Christian Coalition of America.[7] During this period, he argued that the Conservative Party should form closer links with churches on issues such as homosexuality and Section 28, saying that the party should "expose the unbiblical and the libertine".[8] He served as Director of the CCF from 1990 to 2003.[5]

In September 2006, The Independent described Montgomerie as "emerging as a major player in Tory politics."[14] He was critical of the A-List and argued that the party leader after 2005, David Cameron, is in danger of alienating working-class Tory voters,[15][16][17] and has pressed Cameron for specific pledges on tax cuts.[18] He supported the introduction of same-sex marriage in England and Wales arguing that it was a way to strengthen the institution more generally.[19] Through ConservativeHome, Montgomerie has been used as an expert on internet campaigning by Conservative Central Office.[20][21][22]

Montgomerie was a director of the internet television channel 18 Doughty Street which began broadcasting in October 2006 and went off air in November 2007. While at 18 Doughty Street, Montgomerie hosted its 'Campaign HQ' programme, which developed the channel's internet political advertisements after allowing viewers to vote on a choice of (usually) three different proposals. Previous adverts included attacks on taxes, state funding of political parties, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone. The latest, "A World Without America", with an end scene depicting the Statue of Liberty wearing a burqa, was co-produced by 18 Doughty Street and the website BritianAndAmerica, and had 50,000 views within its first 24 hours of publication.[23]

Montgomerie continued to edit ConservativeHome alongside others including co-editor Jonathan Isaby, assistant editor Joseph Willits, deputy editor Matthew Barrett, and Isaby's replacement, former Conservative Member of Parliament Paul Goodman[24] After the 2010 general election Montgomerie wrote a report that was critical of David Cameron's election campaign, entitled 'Falling short'. The Guardian listed him at number 81 in their 2012 list of the most powerful people in the media.[25]

Through his prominence with ConservativeHome, Montgomerie wrote frequent articles on Conservative politics for The Guardian and The Times, and occasionally for the Daily Mail, The Independent, and the Financial Times.[26] In April 2011, he became a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph,[27] but in October of the same year, Montgomerie resigned from his column, after a series of attacks on him by the Mandrake column in The Daily Telegraph, its sister paper. Montgomerie wrote that a tweet critical of the Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher had started the attacks: "A senior Telegraph journalist told me that Tony Gallagher... was "sh*tbagging" me for daring to tweet a criticism of the newspaper last week."[28] Montgomerie became a columnist for The Times soon after.[25]

In February 2013, Montgomerie announced that in April that year he would join The Times as comment editor, replacing Anne Spackman, but maintained a role as an "advisor" and weekly blogger for ConservativeHome.[29] Montgomerie became the "latest national newspaper hire of a right-leaning blogger, following Guido Fawkes's appearance in The Sun '​s Sunday edition."[30]